Archive for the Technology Category

Salient to Investors: Fareed Zakaria said: Russia’s move in Syria is a desperate effort to shore up one of its only foreign allies and risks making it the great Satan with jihadists everywhere. However, Putin has at least a clearer strategy in Syria than Obama. An US army of less than

David Stockman writes: Amazon’s valuation, its one day gain and last week’s Google gain are reminiscent of the days before the tech wreck 15 years ago. The 12 Big Cap Techs of 2000 saw their peak combined valuation of $3.8 trillion plunge to $875 billion a decade later, even as their sales

Salient to Investors: David Stockman writes: Google’s unwarranted market cap gain last Friday – 75% of the 9.6% gain in net income from the prior quarter was due to a lower tax rate and a cutback of ballooning G&A expenses – easily passed in one day the entire $50 billion market cap of Caterpillar, though only

Salient to Investors: Charles Hugh Smith writes: Building new gleaming headquarters generally marks the top of a bank’s fortunes. So Facebook’s glamorous new headquarters, Apple’s under construction “spaceship” campus, Google’s plans for an ultra-modernist headquarters may indicate excessive confidence in endless growth of revenues, profits and valuations. Projections based on permanently parabolic growth

Salient to Investors: The FAA appears willing to allow drones to be used in the energy sector and is expected to release drone use rules in the next twelve months. Large companies like Google, Boeing, and Northrup Grumman, have significant drone businesses and will benefit from wider use of drones

Salient to Investors: Fareed Zakaria said: In 2014, 190 million Indians used the Internet versus 60 million in 2009 and 7 million in 2001 – by 2018, there will be 580 million users. Boston Consulting Group estimates the number of Internet jobs could quadruple in the next 3 years, with

Salient to Investors: Fareed Zakaria said the NSF reports the US share of global R&D at 30%, down from 37% in 2001. China % of GDP spent on R&D is on track to surpass the US in just a few years. Charles Bolden at NASA said a multi-planet species can survive in perpetuity;

Salient to Investors: Fareed Zakaria said: Ookla Net index ranks the US 27th in broadband download speed. New America says the majority of US Internet customers pay more than their counterparts in Europe and Asia. Watch the video at http://globalpublicsquare.blogs.cnn.com/category/gps-episodes/ or read the full transcript at http://www.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/1503/01/fzgps.01.html

Salient to Investors: Fareed Zakaria said: All through history, humans have advanced when they have been able to work together. Matt Ridley said human progress took off when human beings began exchanging things, ideas, skills, goods, services. Teamwork is the most crucial skill and yet education is mostly about solo performances.

Salient to Investors: Dominic Rossi at Fidelity Worldwide Investment said: He is looking to buy markets at these levels, particularly US stocks, amid a sell-off exaggerated and exacerbated by poor positioning from hedge funds. Long-only investors had largely maintained their asset allocations, but there has been a massive contraction of